


lily hammer

by kimchiimoon



Series: modus operandi [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Erwin is a dork, Everyone Is Alive, Fanboy Erwin Smith, Fluff, Getting Together, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) Is a Sweetheart, M/M, Past Erwin Smith/Marie - Freeform, Past Levi/Petra Ral, Shy Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Single Parents, Teacher Erwin Smith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-19 23:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15520830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimchiimoon/pseuds/kimchiimoon
Summary: Erwin loves Amélie Ackerman, a bright student in his kindergarten class who always has prettiest hairstyles and animal crackers to share. Unfortunately, it's three weeks into the school year and he hasn't met her father yet — but after learning that her father is Levi Ackerman, an Olympic figure skating gold medalist, he isn't really sure he wants to.The thing is, Levi isn't just an Olympic figure skating gold medalist. He's an Olympic figure skating gold medalist that Erwin had crushed on ridiculously hard during the Vancouver and Sochi games.God help him.





	lily hammer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> hi maja i love you thank you for putting up with me <333

A week before the school year actually starts, Blue Rose Academy hosts an informal meet-the-teacher night for the younger students and their parents. Informal, because the kids don’t have to be stuffed into the uniform required by the school, and also because the parents are often dragging in personalized school supplies, stickers, backpacks, _anything_ that a five-year-old could possibly use to make their folders and binders more reflective of their own personalities.

 

It’s a night that sees Erwin’s classroom (meticulously decorated by himself in Disney paraphernalia)  covered in glitter and with educational toys scattered along the floor, but he doesn’t mind.

 

He has been filtering in-and-out of conversations with students and parents, welcoming his newest class of kindergarteners and assuring their nervous guardians that the students will be just fine spending six hours away from home each day.

 

Already, Erwin can tell he has a few mischievous personalities, including a little boy named Eren, who seems hell-bent on making another, softer-spoken boy, Armin, cry. Erwin has had to help their parents pry them away from each other twice now, and used both times as opportunities to teach a few long-term life lessons, such as _The Golden Rule_ to Eren, and how to politely stick up for yourself to Armin.

 

As the evening ebbs on, more children filter in and out, and he has more conversations with parents, and shakes the hands of tiny humans who have already grown bored with _Mr. Smith_ and started calling him _Captain America_ instead. It’s a comparison that has plagued Erwin since he was a teenager, but he supposes it isn’t a bad thing — Captain America seems like a pretty trustworthy guy (even though Erwin was born and raised in Berlin).

 

He’s just coming back into his classroom after having a quick conversation with his neighboring teacher, a Ms. Zoë, about how summer really is _over_ , when he spots a little girl with beautiful, waist-length red hair, sitting at a desk marked _Amélie._ To her left, helping her place stickers on a blue folder, is a woman with equally beautiful hair in the same red shade, and to her right is an older woman, perhaps in her late fifties. Her hair is so dark that it’s nearly blue, and peppered with a few silver and grey strands, parted neatly in a French plait.

 

Erwin brushes his hands on his navy blue slacks, and approaches the trio with a smile, coming to the front of Amélie’s desk and kneeling so he’s not towering over the little girl.

 

She’s putting flower stickers all over her blue folder, decorating it with glittery red roses and frosted pink lilies.

 

Erwin grins and points to one of the lily stickers.

 

“You know, those are my favorites.” He says warmly, making the little girl and her surrounding family look up with friendly smiles.

 

“Really?” Amélie looks up at him, and Erwin finds himself struck by her unusual eyes. Never before has Erwin seen such a striking, vibrant grey — in fact, Amélie’s eyes are so brilliantly grey that they almost look sliver, or maybe amethyst, but they are still warm and expressive. Regardless, Erwin immediately knows that her eye color combined with her hair and her other cute features will make her the superstar of the kindergarten.

 

Amélie points to one of the glittery roses. “I like these!” She exclaims. “They remind me of _Beauty and The Beast_.”

 

Erwin places a hand over his heart and gasps, eyes bright. “That’s my second favorite Disney movie!”

 

Before Amélie has a chance to respond in kind, a warm voice comes from the older woman. Her vocal color is deeper than Erwin expected it to be, and her syllables are lightly accented.

 

“What’s your first?” She asks in that unplaceable accent, her hand resting delicately over her heart.

 

“Pocahontas.” Erwin shamelessly admits, bracing his hands on his knees and pushing himself into a standing position. “I could never resist the soundtrack.”

 

The red-headed woman laughs. “Figures. You could pass for John Smith.”

 

Erwin raises his hands and shrugs as if to say, _that’s exactly it_ , and the foursome share a laugh, Amélie pushing from her seat to run back to the cubby-wall to put stickers all over her cube, the blue, flowery folder abandoned on the desk.

 

Erwin offers each of the ladies a hand. “Erwin Smith. I’ll be Amélie’s teacher this year.”

 

“You guys even have the same last name!” The dark-haired woman exclaims, mock-shock written all over her face. Erwin quite likes her sense of humor — placing her accent to be French — and smiles, pressing his tongue between his teeth.

 

The red-head rolls her eyes and lightly reaches over to slap the older woman’s arm.

 

“I’m Petra, Amélie’s mother,” The red-head, _Petra_ , says. She gestures to the other woman, “And this is Kuchel, Amélie’s grandmother.”

 

Kuchel smiles and gives Erwin a nod.

 

From the back of the room, Amélie calls, _“Grandma!”_ , and Kuchel’s face blossoms.

 

“Duty calls.” She excuses herself gracefully, making her way back to Amélie’s cubby.

 

“Amélie’s father couldn’t make it tonight, but she stays with him most of the time, so you’ll probably meet him eventually.” Petra explains.

 

Erwin’s brow twitches up, and he gives her a nod, understanding the implications. So, Petra and Amélie’s father aren’t together anymore. He makes a mental note of this, and sincerely hopes that the two are at least on good terms for Amélie’s sake. He’s seen far-too-many times the negative effects that divorce and shared custody can have, even on a child as young as Amélie.

 

As if reading his mind, Petra tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and smiles warmly at Erwin, one of her hands reaching down to absently press on some of the stickers on Amélie’s folder.

 

“He and I are still really close,” She says. “Kuchel is actually _his_ mother.”

 

Erwin feels warmth bloom in his chest — he would even go as far as to say that he’s _relieved_ to hear this news, his shoulders sagging a bit when he didn’t even realize he was strung tight. Amélie is a sweetheart, he can already tell, and Erwin is glad that her home life seems stable and solid despite separated parents.

 

“That’s amazing.” He responds, absolute sincerity in his voice. “I’m glad.”

 

Petra nods and crosses her arms over her chest, sighing sweetly and looking at Erwin with soft eyes. There is no animosity in her stare, only fondness, which is how Erwin knows she’s being truthful, and not just telling Erwin things for the sake of making a good first impression.

 

“We’re just better off as friends, you know?” She speaks as if she trusts Erwin like a friend already, and Erwin doesn’t take that lightly, and holds her words dear.

 

Oh, does he empathize! His ex-fiancée, a woman named Marie, is still his closest friend, and they get drinks (or try to, at least) every week. After four years of dating and one year of engagement, they realized that the reason why they kept finding reasons to push the wedding off wasn’t because they didn’t love each other, but because they didn’t love each other in _that_ way.

 

Sometimes things like that happen — people who think they’re lovers are really just friend-soulmates, and he tells Petra as much.

 

She seems really grateful for Erwin’s kind words and wisdom, and lets him get back to greeting other children and their families, tucking the blue folder into the desk going back to meet Amélie and Kuchel at the cubby.

 

Erwin _does_ return to shaking hands and helping the kids get settled in, but always keeps a curious eye on Amélie and her family.

 

Eventually, meet-the-teacher night comes to a close, and while he is loosening his tie and sweeping up bits and pieces of construction paper and glitter from the floor, he finds himself thinking about Amélie, Petra, and Kuchel.

 

Funny, he thinks, dumping the construction paper into the recycle bin.

 

Petra’s eyes were hazel.

 

. . . .

 

After meet-the-teacher night, Erwin had glanced over his student roster, recalling the kids’ names and faces, when he catches that Amélie’s last name is _Ackerman_.

 

Ackerman, Ackerman, _Ackerman_ — where does he know that name from? It’s not exactly a common last name (at least, not as common as _Smith_ ), and he’s fairly certain that he hasn’t ever had any students in the past with the last name Ackerman.

 

It just sounds so familiar to Erwin. He _knows_ that he’s heard that name before, he just can’t recall when and where and on whom.

 

Oh well. Erwin doesn’t dwell too much on it. Maybe he knew an Ackerman while growing up back in Germany. It doesn’t really matter, anyways. The mystery will be solved soon enough, when he eventually meets Amélie’s father.

 

. . . .

 

The mystery is _not_ solved quickly, because three weeks into the school year, Erwin has met all of the parents with the exception of Amélie’s father. Honestly, Erwin has been so busy dealing with kindergarten meltdowns (most of which are his students’, some of which are his own), and making sure that the tiny humans under his care for six hours a day learn good life lessons, along with how to read and recognize _“really big monster numbers,”_ like eighty-eight and one hundred, that he hasn’t really thought about Amélie’s father since pondering her last name.

 

Regardless, Amélie has quickly shot up to the top of Erwin’s list. He knows that he technically _shouldn’t_ have favorite students, but he does, and Amélie is definitely one of the best kids he’s had in awhile. Petra and Kuchel conveniently neglected to mention that she already knows how to read, and blows through books quicker than Erwin can keep them in his classroom, she speaks French to her grandmother and her dad, is quiet and clean and always shares her animal crackers at snack time, and is just a general joy to have in class.

 

She struggles a little with math, but most kids do, and Erwin isn’t worried about it. She’s a wonderful kid — and to add onto that, she always comes to school with the prettiest hairstyles. Sometimes she wears braids similar to the one her grandmother wore on meet-the-teacher night, and sometimes she has intricate buns on top of her head or waterfall-braids with her curls long and loose at her back; sometimes she has a simple chignon. Whoever does her hair in the mornings is very talented.

 

Erwin wonders if it’s her father.  

 

Some of the mystery behind Amélie’s elusive parent is revealed during one of the class activities, where the students are drawing their families and filling in blanks about them.

 

It’s a vocabulary-and-motor-skill-building exercise disguised as a creative one, and the classroom is filled with the happy chatter of five and six year olds and the sound of colors on paper as Erwin mulls about the room, checking on the work being done by the tiny humans.

 

Eren’s dad is a doctor, and his mother is a seamstress. According to Eren, his dad’s job is boring, and his mom’s is really, _really_ important. More important than being a doctor.

 

Erwin points to the drawing Eren has done of his mother. “Why is being a seamstress so important?” He asks, genuinely curious.

 

Eren looks up at Erwin with the most bewildered look on his face, as though the answer is so, _so_ obvious and he can’t believe that his super smart teacher, Mr. Smith, is even asking.

 

“If she didn’t make clothes we’d all be naked.” He deadpans, completely serious, and Erwin has to bite back a snort.

 

_Well._

 

Technically that’s true.

 

And pretty important.

 

He pats Eren on the back and moves along.

 

Amélie is coloring quietly at her seat at the side of the room, holding a navy blue colored pencil to her page.

 

Her family drawing consists of herself, her mother, her grandmother, and her father. She has even gone so far as to label their jobs above their heads!

 

Above Petra, in messy, five-year-old scrawl, is _Teacher_ — Erwin knew that one. He’s been in contact with Petra, just like he has been in contact with all of the parents (except for Amélie’s father, a man who seemingly has no contact information), and somewhere between their emails it became known that Petra has a tenured position at a nearby university, in the psychology department.

 

Kuchel has _Cook_ written above her drawing, and Erwin points to it.

 

“Does she work at a restaurant?” He asks. Amélie doesn’t look up from her drawing, too focused on trying to color within the lines, but she shakes her head.

 

“Not anymore. She makes my lunches a lot, though! She’s good.” Amélie talks like a song, her voice very gentle and it doesn’t carry very far unless she shouts — which Erwin has only ever heard her do twice.

 

He hums in interest and glances at Amélie’s hair. Today it’s in waterfall braids that are twisted to form a half-up bun. Her curls are a little frizzy, because it’s September, after all, but if Khaleesi had red hair, it would look exactly like Amélie’s.

 

“Does grandma do your hair too?”

 

At this, Amélie rests her colored pencil on the desk, and looks up at Erwin with a smile. “ _Nooo_ ,” She shakes her head, and then points to the drawing of her father.

 

Erwin knows he shouldn’t trust the scale of a five-year-old’s drawing, but he’s absolutely positive that Amélie’s father isn’t _shorter_ than Petra, as the drawing depicts.

 

“Daddy does it!” She says with great pride, beaming at her teacher.

 

Erwin is impressed — though he had his suspicions that her father did her hair — it’s cool to know that Amélie’s dad actually gets up and does such pretty hairstyles. He knows some dads who would break down and cry before being able to get their daughter’s hair in so much as a ponytail.

 

“You should tell him he does a great job.”

 

Above the drawing of Amélie’s father is the grand reveal of his profession — _Ice Skater_ — and suddenly it all clicks for Erwin.

 

He knows _exactly_ where he’s heard Amélie’s last name. Of course, it could be a mere coincidence, but if he judges off of her rough sketch, there’s no denying it, and Erwin’s eyes widen a little bit.

 

_Levi Ackerman_ . _US Olympic Silver Medalist, Vancouver 2010. US Olympic Gold Medalist, Sochi 2014._

 

Amélie’s father is an Olympic figure skater.  Erwin knows _exactly_ who Levi Ackerman is, because Levi Ackerman at the Vancouver Olympic games had spurred what Ms. Zoe called the _“Great Bisexual Awakening”_ in Erwin.

 

Watching Levi Ackerman, petit and strong, complete mind-boggling routines and display insane athleticism and flexibility on the ice, all while looking so pretty and composed, had been the very end of Kind-of-Straight Erwin, and the beginning of Definitely Bisexual Erwin.

 

It all makes sense now — the reason why Amélie is the way she is; so quiet, so polite and clean. She takes after Levi.

 

Not that Erwin _knows_ Levi or anything — but he had been a little obsessed during the Olympic games, watching all of Levi’s routines and interviews, reading articles about him. The little bits of trivia that the figure skater let slip are all traits similar to the way Amélie acts. During interviews, Erwin had noticed that Levi seemed to be very private and calm ( _now_ Erwin knows why Levi hasn’t shown face at the school yet!), but when around his other figure skating teammates, particularly silver medalist Furlan Church, and gold medalist, Isabel Magnolia, he seemed to open up in an adorably endearing manner — and   _oh God_.

 

He had a crush on his student’s father.

 

Hell, he might _still_ have a crush on his student’s father. He hasn’t thought about figure skating since Sochi, the last Olympic games that Levi competed in, but it probably wouldn’t take much to open up that lightly-resealed can of worms.

 

Oh, Fuck, Erwin thinks. Don’t get weird about it.

 

He asks Amélie a few more questions about her family, managing to discover that Petra is awful at doing hair, and Kuchel sometimes pretends that she can’t understand English when Amélie tries to speak to her in anything other than French. He also learns that Levi is a figure skating coach now, and really loves to do _“big jumps”_ — which isn’t anything new. During his time as a competitive skater, Levi had been known for his flawless triples and ambitious attempts at quadruple loops (none of which he ever used in his Olympic programs, smart on his part).

 

After he moves along from Amélie, he asks the other students about their assignments, before collecting them to hang them up on their family wall for Open House.

 

All the time, Erwin keeps reminding himself, _don’t get weird about it._

 

. . . .

 

Erwin gets weird about it.

 

Erwin gets _really_ fucking weird about it.

 

In hindsight, he should’ve asked the kids about who all would be attending the first Open House of the school year in late September, but he had been so frazzled with decorating his classroom with the _best_ of the students’ work and re-stapling his Mickey Mouse board liners that he had completely neglected to account for the fact that Amélie’s dad would probably show up.

 

Erwin’s stomach drops to the seat of his pants when he comes back into the classroom after having cleaned up a glue explosion, and sees Amélie sitting at the arts and crafts table in the back of the room, putting stickers all over _Levi Ackerman’s_ face.

 

There are other parents there too, and kids running in and out of classrooms, and Levi and Amélie aren’t even the only ones at the craft table, but they’re the only ones that Erwin sees.

 

Erwin has only ever seen Levi Ackerman on television, wearing sparkling, tight-fitting ice dancer costumes and makeup smoked around his eyes, so seeing him in person, sans makeup, wearing just a simple striped t-shirt with a black cardigan thrown over it has him a little starstruck.

 

Levi is completely immersed in whatever Amélie is saying to him, and Erwin thinks it’s adorable how he’s letting her put a tiny, glossy red heart sticker just under his eye.

 

Levi is just…

 

Really adorable.

 

Erwin decides he’s going to avoid him for the rest of the night, and just as he’s about to turn and acquaint himself with Eren’s parents, who are admiring the family portraits that their son keeps bugging them to look at, Amélie’s voice cuts across the room.

 

“Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith!” She waves her little hand. “My daddy is here!”

 

There’s definitely no getting out of this.

 

Erwin keeps repeating _don’t get weird about it, don’t get weird about it. He’s just a person. Don’t get weird_ the entire way over to the craft table.

 

God — Levi is so attractive in person. He’s aged a little since Sochi, but it fits him. His hair is still undercut, but his face has thinned out and given way to very pretty bone structure — and oh God, Amélie has his eyes.

 

Hers aren’t as cool-toned as her father’s, but Levi definitely gave his striking eye color and the cooling warmth behind them to Amélie.  

 

(The heart sticker under his eye catches the fluorescent lighting and not even _Disney_ could make something look as magical as that.)

 

Levi stands to his feet, mindful of Amélie, who turns her attention to the stamps on the table and decides to make her mother a card.

 

Erwin hopes he hides his surprise well when Levi stands, because though he knows from Olympic broadcasts that Levi is a slight 5’3, Erwin isn’t prepared for just how _small_ Levi is. He barely comes up to Erwin’s shoulder, but it’s obvious that Levi’s body carries strength. His cardigan, though slouchy, drapes nicely over his trim waist (Erwin could probably fit both hands all the way around Levi's waist), and his jeans are light-washed and fit tightly over the muscles in his legs — _don’t get weird about it._

 

Levi offers Erwin a hand, which Erwin takes gracelessly and maybe _too_ enthusiastically.

 

“I’m—” Levi begins, only to be cut off by Erwin, who is starstruck and not as cool and suave around Levi as he is with the other parents.

 

“Levi Ackerman,” Erwin finishes for him, hoping that he isn’t blushing the same scarlet letter as his shame when he realizes what he’s done.

 

Levi looks at him a little surprised, his lips parting a bit, but eyes staying soft and sweet. He nods, still holding Erwin’s hand, and to Erwin’s absolute _delight_ , a bashful pinch of rose dusts Levi’s cheeks, and he looks down and smiles softly.

 

“Uh, yeah,” He drops Erwin’s hand and rubs the back of his neck.

 

“I’m a big fan of the Olympics.” Erwin quickly covers. That’s a damn lie. Erwin never watched the Olympics before Vancouver, and he damn sure didn’t know _anything_ about figure skating until Levi made the Vancouver team, and he hasn’t so much as thought about an ice rink since Levi placed gold at Sochi and announced his retirement from competitive skating.

 

“Oh — that’s cool.” Levi shoves his hands into the pockets of his cardigan and meets Erwin’s gaze again. “You must be the Mr. Smith that she,” he takes a hand out of a pocket to jerk his thumb in the direction of Amélie, “won’t stop talking about.”

 

Now it’s Erwin’s turn to blush. Levi may be an actual Olympic gold medalist, and he may have been invited to _Dancing with the Stars_ , but Erwin is kind of a celebrity in his own classroom, too. He can only pray that his students relay positive information back to the parents.

 

Erwin shrugs, not too unlike the way he did when meeting Petra and Kuchel, and smiles. “And you must be the one who does the _Game of Thrones_ hairstyles, right?”

 

Levi smiles widely at this and Erwin’s heart stops, because right then and there, he falls in love. Levi has such a beautiful smile — it’s a smile that Erwin has seen a bunch of times, like when Levi finished his first ever program at the Olympics in Vancouver, when he won silver, when he made the 2014 team, when he won gold.

 

Erwin has seen that smile a lot of times, but he never _ever_ thought that he would be the reason it blossoms across Levi’s face.

 

“I prayed so hard that she would have her mother’s hair color,” Levi remarks quietly.

 

Amélie is like an exact personality mirror of her father. Erwin has heard this whispery, secretive voice in Amélie, has seen all of these mannerisms in her, from the hands in the pockets to the glancing down and then back up. It’s actually kind of adorable (it’s _super_ adorable, especially with the heart sticker still on Levi’s face).  

 

“She got your eyes though.” Erwin says. “You guys are a lot alike.” He remarks, unsure if he’s crossing any boundaries, but Levi doesn’t seem uncomfortable or bothered.

 

Levi gives Erwin an apologetic smile. “I don’t think she’s as introverted as I am,” He admits, his foot tracing circles along the carpet. “It’s kind of weird I haven’t shown up, right?”

 

Erwin shakes his head. “Not at all. Sometimes I go months without ever hearing from a student’s parents. At least I know you do her hair every morning.”

 

They both laugh, albeit a bit awkwardly. To any onlookers, they’re like two painfully awkward teenagers dancing around each other.

 

There’s a lull in conversation — and that lull is enough for Erwin to start over-thinking things again and remember that he’s standing in front of Levi _fucking_ Ackerman.

 

Levi starts to turn back towards the craft table, still looking at Erwin. “I’m going to—”

 

“I can’t ice skate.” Erwin blurts out a bit too loudly. He is instantly mortified, and wants to go flush himself down the toilet.

 

Levi’s eyes grow wide again, like the sudden noise startled him, and he stares at Erwin for a few seconds, blinking intermittently. It seems like Levi is looking at Erwin a lot longer than he actually is, and after a moment, Levi’s pretty smile starts to break across his face again, this time light-hearted and in good humor.

 

“Um, okay.” He says gently, both affirming that Erwin has indeed said something kind of stupid and random, and reassuring Erwin that it’s alright that he has. If anybody else had responded like that, it would’ve most definitely sounded patronizing, but it just sounds sweet coming from Levi, and eases the pain of embarrassment just a little.

 

Levi gestures back to the craft table, still smiling. “I’m going to get back to Amie,” He says, and Erwin nods, refusing to open his mouth again.

 

“It was really nice to meet you, Mr. Smith.”

 

Erwin nods again, giving a gracious and utterly humiliated smile, before running off to somebody else’s parents with his tail between his legs.

 

_Don’t be weird about it._

 

Yeah, fat chance.  

 

. . . .

 

The first half of the school year always passes quickly. Erwin has seen Levi a handful of times following the first Open House, and talked to him every time he sees him. Erwin gets better at talking to Levi, and Levi even tells him after the kindergarten Halloween party that he’s flattered that Erwin recognized him and is a fan.

 

It makes Erwin feel a little bit better and less awkward.

 

Amélie is still his favorite star student, and soon Levi’s schedule seems to clear up enough that he is able to attend school events with Petra and Kuchel, and Erwin sees the truth in Petra’s statement on meet-the-teacher night.

 

Levi and Petra are best friends, maybe even like brother and sister, and it’s hard to imagine that they were together romantically at all. Erwin is glad that Amélie has both of her parents and her grandmother so prominent in her life, though. It makes her well rounded.

 

The winter holidays come around, and the kids start getting antsy as winter break inches closer and the snow stacks higher, and Erwin is looking forward to break, too. It’s been a long but rewarding first-half of the year. All of his kids are reading machines and can do basic addition and subtraction, and they’re even coloring in the lines better.

 

The holiday party is the last stop on the calendar until the new year, but unfortunately it conflicts with Levi’s schedule, so Petra and Kuchel show up without him, Kuchel with a vase of lillies in tow.

 

Holiday gifts from parents aren’t anything unusual, though Erwin is humble and always pleasantly surprised when parents think of him during the gift-giving season, and he brightens up considerably when Kuchel passes the vase of beautiful lilies.

He vaguely remembers off-handedly mentioning that they were his favorite during meet-the-teacher night so many moons ago, and he’s touched that they remembered.

 

“Thank you!” He places the lilies proudly on his desk, which is overflowing with handmade cards and store bought gifts from other parents. The lilies mean the most to him though.

 

Kuchel grins and nudges Petra before being dragged off by Amélie to decorate a gingerbread house, and Erwin stands before Petra, looking a bit confused, because she’s looking at him like the cat that ate the canary.

 

“Levi is sorry he couldn’t make it,” She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a tiny yellow envelope. Written in the prettiest cursive script that Erwin has ever see is _Mr. Smith_ , and she hands it to him.

 

“The flowers are from him, by the way.” Petra winks and turns to help her daughter and former mother-in-law decorate gingerbread houses with the kids, leaving Erwin standing dumbly at the front of the room, Levi’s card in his hands.

 

He decides not to open it until after the party, and tucks it safely into his desk where it won’t be harmed by the tiny humans.

 

Later, when the sugar has been vacuumed from his floor and he is just about to head home for winter break with his vase of lilies, Erwin remembers Levi’s card.

 

It’s only about five inches tall and three inches wide — not a standard greeting card or anything of the sort. There’s an embossed mickey mouse head on the front, and there isn’t any pre-written message or anything inside of it. Instead, there is Levi’s gorgeous handwriting leaving a short, sweet, concise message on the inside.

 

Erwin reads it twice, and then starts laughing, his eyes crinkling at the corners and his heart soaring into the sky. It’s so simple, but it’s _so Levi_ , and a dream come true for Definitely Bisexual Erwin.  

  


_I can ice skate._

 

_xxx-xxx-xx78_

 

_Levi._

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> feedback is always appreciated, thank you so much! i hope you enjoyed!


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